Mindframe Performance is the official sport psychology partner of Swindon Town FC. Announced in August 2026, the partnership gives the club’s Academy, First-Team and Women’s squads, plus staff, access to the Mindframe Academy app, delivers workshops tailored to each group, and offers optional one to one sport psychology sessions for any first-team or academy player who wants personalised support.

Swindon Town did not have anything in place for sport psychology. No structure, no shared language, no consistent way to train the mental side of the game. Not unusual. Most clubs invest heavily in the physical and the technical and leave the mind to chance.

Swindon decided to change that. On 26 August 2026 the club announced Mindframe Performance as its official Sport Psychology partner. This is what we are building together, how it works, and why this one means more to me than most.

What was the goal at Swindon Town?

 

The goal is simple to say and hard to do: build a club where the mental side gets the same attention as everything else. Swindon’s stated vision is to become the “Best in the West”. You do not get there by working harder on the training pitch alone.

Starting from nothing is actually an advantage. There are no bad habits to undo and no half built programme to work around. We could design the whole thing properly from day one, across every part of the club.

Adam Labelle, Swindon Town’s Head of Academy Player Care, helped form the partnership. His view is clear. It strengthens the Academy’s psychology provision and gives First-Team players access to the same support. He believes mindset is a huge part of performance, and he wanted the club to treat it that way.

What does Mindframe deliver at Swindon?

 

We built it in three layers. Each one does a different job.

1. A base for everyone. The whole club gets access to the Mindframe Academy app. That means the Academy, the First-Team, the Women’s squads and the staff. Everyone builds the same base knowledge of mental performance tools, so a coach, a scholar and a senior pro can all talk the same language.

2. Workshops for specific groups. We run in person workshops on the specific areas each group needs. An under 16 player and a first team player face different pressures, so they get different work.

3. One to one support. Any first-team or academy player who wants specific, personalised help can book one to one sessions with a sport psychologist on our team. Optional, private and built around the individual.

The layers feed each other. The app raises the floor for everyone. The workshops go deeper with each group. The one to one work goes deepest with the players who want it. That is how the mental side stops being an emergency measure and becomes part of how a club operates.

What is in the Mindframe Academy app?

 

Mindframe Academy is our mental performance app. It is built around 12 pillars, each one a skill a player can learn and train:

1. Introduction to Sport Psychology: what sport psychology is, what it is not, and how to start training your mind.
2. Resilience: the six pillars of resilience, so players can handle discomfort, recover from setbacks and self-regulate under stress.
3. Pressure & Nerves: how the stress response works and how to turn nerves into excitement.
4. Confidence: something you actively build, not something mystical you either have or do not.
5. Emotional Control & Thought Regulation: how to detach from negative thoughts and stay composed when the game turns.
6. Flow State & High Performance Routines: building a pre-performance routine and understanding what triggers and blocks flow.
7. Athletic Identity: Living Like a High Performer: lifestyle, habits and behavioural psychology for consistency off the pitch as well as on it.
8. Super Strengths & Profiling: building a performance profile and knowing your strengths.
9. Teamwork & Communication: cohesion and how to communicate when it matters.
10. Visualisation: the number one tool elite athletes use for confidence, learning and preparation.
11. Motivation & Goal Setting: what actually drives you and how to set goals you stick to.
12. Mindfulness & Concentration: quick resets and how to hold focus for ninety minutes.

On top of the pillars there is a Parents section, Supporting Your Junior Athlete, which matters at academy level where parents are a huge part of a young player’s world. There is also Daily Mental Training: meditations, visualisations and short daily exercises that turn knowledge into habit.

Knowing what to do is never the problem. Doing it consistently is. The daily training is there to close that gap.

Which groups have workshops?

 

The workshops started with the under 18s and under 16s at the end of July 2026. The younger academy groups launch in October 2026.

Each group gets work on the specific areas that matter at their stage. An under 18 scholar fighting for a professional contract deals with different pressure to a twelve year old learning to handle a bad game in front of their parents. Same principles, different application.

The workshops sit on top of the app. Players arrive with a shared base of knowledge, so the time in the room goes on applying it to their football rather than explaining the basics.

A homegrown partnership

 

I grew up a Swindon Town fan. It was my club, the one I watched as a kid, and I was lucky enough to be a mascot. I was football mad as a kid, so that was as big as it got.

So this one is different for me. I played for two academies, Peterborough United and Nottingham Forest, so I know what it is like to be an academy footballer. I have spent my whole adult life trying to understand why talented players go missing when it matters, because it happened to me. Now I get to bring that work back to the club that made me fall in love with football in the first place.

Standing in the home dugout with a Swindon shirt with Mindframe on the back was a great experience, after watching so many games from full stands when I was younger. I want every young player coming through this academy to have the mental tools I never had at their age.

What’s next?

 

It is early days and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The partnership was announced in August. The under 18 and under 16 workshops are up and running, and the younger academy groups start in October.

Next is rolling the work out across the younger academy, building app usage across every squad, and making sure any player who wants one to one support knows exactly how to get it. We will share what the work produces when there is something real to share. Not before.

What this means for other clubs and academies

 

What we are building at Swindon sits alongside our work with Blackpool FC’s academy. Every club is different, but the principle is the same. Give everyone a base, go deeper with specific groups, and give individual players the support they need.

Mindframe was founded in 2020 and is based in London with operations in the UAE. Our team of 17 practitioners has supported over 2,500 athletes across 80 plus sports. We are a team of HCPC registered Sport Psychologists and practitioners who follow supervised practice in line with BPS and CASES guidelines.

If your club or academy has nothing in place for the mental side, that is the best place to start from. Get in touch and we will show you what it could look like.

Frequently asked questions

 

Summary

 

Swindon Town had nothing in place for sport psychology. Now the whole club has a structure: the Mindframe Academy app for the Academy, First-Team, Women’s squads and staff, workshops for specific groups starting with the under 18s and under 16s, and one to one support for any player who wants it. For me, it is the chance to give back to the club I grew up supporting.

If you run a club or academy and want the mental side built properly, get in touch with our team. You can read more about sport psychology for football, explore Mindframe Academy, or learn about the team behind Mindframe.